Vancouver dog busters (with video)

Denise Ryan, Vancouver Sun04.29.2012

VANCOUVER, BC.: APRIL 16, 2012-Off leash park for dogs near Vanier Park in Vancouver, B.C., on April 16, 2012. Suzanne Forman with her dog Georgia (right) and another dog (left) who is visiting the photographer.Steve Bosch
/ PNG

VANCOUVER, BC.: APRIL 16, 2012-Off leash park for dogs near Vanier Park in Vancouver, B.C., on April 16, 2012. Suzanne Forman with her dog Georgia (right) and another dog (left) who is visiting the photographer.Steve Bosch
/ PNG

VANCOUVER, BC.: APRIL 16, 2012-Off leash park for dogs near Vanier Park in Vancouver, B.C., on April 16, 2012. Suzanne Forman with her dog Georgia (right) and another dog (left) who is visiting the photographer.Steve Bosch
/ PNG

VANCOUVER, BC.: APRIL 16, 2012-Off leash park for dogs near Vanier Park in Vancouver, B.C., on April 16, 2012. Suzanne Forman with her dog Georgia (right) and another dog (left) who is visiting the photographer.Steve Bosch
/ PNG

VANCOUVER, BC.: APRIL 16, 2012-Off leash park for dogs near Vanier Park in Vancouver, B.C., on April 16, 2012. Suzanne Forman with her dog Georgia (right) and another dog (left) who is visiting the photographer.Steve Bosch
/ PNG

VANCOUVER, BC.: APRIL 16, 2012-Off leash park for dogs near Vanier Park in Vancouver, B.C., on April 16, 2012. Suzanne Forman with her dog Georgia (right) and another dog (left) who is visiting the photographer.Steve Bosch
/ PNG

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Alan Jones lives a couple of blocks east of Main with his partner Linda Graham and two furry family members: Maurie, a goofy Goldendoodle, and Kiera, a somewhat more dignified poodle.

Jones is semi-retired. He used to be a cat person, but for the past few years he has enjoyed the company of his dogs.

Their daily exercise is his. Until recently, that exercise included a walk up to Charles Tupper high school’s green space where, before or after school hours when the field wasn’t in use, he would let Kiera and Maurie run free as he chatted with other dog owners.

“It’s a real community,” Jones says.

At least it was. Until the day he noticed a woman watching as the dogs romped. She took out a camera, snapped a few photos and disappeared.

A few minutes later, animal control swooped in, doling out fines of $250.

“We were in the corner and had an escape route,” said Jones. “We were able to slip away.”

Jones says the community of dog lovers has been driven away, leaving the green space unused — although Jones said neighbours miss the canine community: loitering and illicit activity has increased where the dogs used to play.

The bust Jones witnessed was part of the City of Vancouver’s much-publicized 2011 adoption of a zero-tolerance approach to dog bylaw infractions.

In 2005, off-leash bylaw infraction fees were jacked up from $25 to a minimum of $250 and a maximum of $2000.

Even with heftier fines, zero-tolerance was introduced because, said Sarah Hicks, manager of animal services for the City of Vancouver, “The proactive approach to having dog owners monitor their own behaviour wasn’t working.”

Although animal control is a City of Vancouver department, the Vancouver park board, an elected body, is behind the enforcement measures: “The political responsibility lies with the park board. The park board decides how much money is allocated to dogs and parks, it’s never come to council,” said Coun. Geoff Meggs.

Animal control and the Vancouver park board work closely on enforcement, but none of the licensing revenues go toward improving park access and amenities for dogs.

Since ramping up enforcement in early 2011, the number of tickets for off-leash dog offences jumped 30 per cent compared to the previous year.

The city employs 12 full-time animal control enforcement officers that are deployed seven days a week, from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. Hicks wants her troops out even earlier, but said their union won’t allow it. Yet.

Jones said he has been chased across fields by increasingly aggressive enforcement officers who lie in wait, staking out the area like secret agents, videotaping and taking photos that can later be used in court.

“I consider it a huge waste of resources,” said Jones, dryly.

Hicks said her department responds to complaints from the public, and receives more than 4,000 calls per year.

In 2011, 118 of those calls involved bite complaints.

Although there was no single incident that prompted her department to ramp up ticketing, Hicks said safety is a primary concern.

“We had a horrible incident on the seawall a couple of years ago of a biker being jumped on and he had horrible injuries from an off-leash dog with lifelong consequences.”

Critics view it as a cash grab, but Hicks said the money raised through ticketing goes into general city revenues, and is nowhere near enough to cover the cost of the pound and paying enforcement staff.

The total budget for animal control, including running the pound and staffing enforcement is $1.8 million annually.

Total revenue for animal control was just under $900,000 in 2011, $780,000 of which was raised through licensing. That number does not include ticketing revenue said Hicks.

The battle between dog owners and non-dog owners is not new, but as the days get longer, and more people and pooches flood the parks and beaches, the conflicts are escalating.

“It’s one of the most polarized, charged issues there is,” said Geoff Meggs, who has a dog, and uses Charleson park. “In my neighbourhood park there have been a number of feuds over the years.”

“Ticketing is up,” said Hicks, of 2012’s first quarter.

City data shows 208 dog owners have been dinged for off-leash dogs and 125 nabbed for not having a licence already this year.

Some of the most likely places to get caught include Balaclava Park at 29th and Dunbar, George Wainborn Park on Beach Crescent and Trout Lake.

On a recent crisp, sunny weekend day at Kits beach (where, full disclosure, I was walking my dog), the conflict was all part of the local colour. As a young student wiped away tears, a uniformed enforcement officer with a take-no-prisoners face wrote her up ($150 for walking on the sand with her pocket-sized dog on a leash). A second officer marched off to bust a chihuahua frisking below the tide line, and a unicyclist sped by, calling out “Is this what our city is coming to? A person can’t even walk their dog? Shame on you!”

Hadden Park the small crescent of beach and “postage stamp” of grass north of the Maritime museum is a good example of what’s wrong with parks policy says dog-owner Suzanne Foreman: It’s the only off-leash dog park serving Kitsilano — too far for many to walk to, it is inaccessible, unlit at night, has one overflowing garbage can and no fresh water for dogs. Adding to the problem, each year on May 1 the dog beach loses its full-time off-leash designation and goes to part-time hours: 6 a.m. until 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. until 10 p.m.

Dog owners want more dedicated off-leash space and less harassment. Meanwhile, the vocal citizens who don’t like dogs, are afraid of them or don’t want to get knocked over on their morning run, want more enforcement and stricter segregation.

Bylaw enforcement officers have no authority to detain violators or force compliance. If scofflaws give a fake name, hide in a bush or scoop up their pup and run, officers can take a photo of the fleeing perps but that’s about it.

Ann Pepper, a mother of three, wants animal enforcement officers given special constable status with greater powers — and is seeking a complete moratorium on dog park development in Vancouver until further studies can be done.

Pepper works with anti-off-leash advocates iCare Vancouver to lobby for more rules and better compliance.

“I originally had no opinions about it either way,” said Pepper. When she had children, everything changed. “A dog can be like a horse to a child. They can come rushing up and you can’t predict what will happen. Even if nothing happens, a child can be frightened,” Pepper said.

“It’s just very difficult to talk about. If you say anything to dog owners, they can get really, really upset.”

Pepper knows just how upset: she served on the city’s failed 2006 dog strategy task force, a group of three dog owners and three non-dog owners tasked with coming up with recommendations.

The discussions, she said, were so difficult and fraught with hostility that the group was unable to come to any consensus, even when a facilitator was brought in.

The issue is so delicate that many who oppose off-leash dogs in Vancouver park were unwilling to go on record with The Sun. As one Vancouver mom who reached out to us through Twitter explained, many of her friends have dogs and she doesn’t want them to hate her. It’s complicated.

The City of Vancouver has 35 off-leash areas, although only 16 of these have full-time hours and only two are fenced. Some have off-leash hours in the early morning or late at night; some that are off-leash during fall and winter revert to leash-only between June and October.

Vancouver is home to approximately 145,500 dogs, according to park board data, and 36 per cent of Vancouver households have a dog. Of those, only about 22,000 are licensed.

Studies show dog-owners are overwhelmingly more likely than non-dog owners to use parks daily and their presence can reduce crime and vandalism in little-used areas.

A study for the Trust for Public Land in the U.S. showed dog parks are the greatest growth area for city parks — a growth that’s been compared to the playground movement of the 1800s.

Cities like Portland have developed environmentally sensitive dog park strategies with green waste management, amenities like shade for owners, water for the dogs and lighting for dark mornings.

The Vancouver park board recently produced a 45-page report on off-leash space that shows Vancouver is lagging.

Calgary, for example, has one off-leash area per 7,151 residents; Vancouver has one per 17,200.

The draft principles posted on the park board website state that off-leash areas are an important part of the park system, need to work for all park users and point toward physical separation of off-leash areas as a solution that can work for all.

But critics say the work of the park board doesn’t go far enough, and plans for public consultation are vague at best.

Park board chair Aaron Jasper, who lives in the dense West End, said that for him, the issue is not just political: “It is high on my personal agenda.”

Jasper has a young child, is a frequent park user and does not have a dog himself. He helped create the fenced-in gravel dog area in Nelson park.

“Our current policy is part of the problem — staggered hours off-leash and undefined leash areas that are only visible by looking at a Google map.”

Jasper said he is hoping for more public feedback on the draft principles posted online.

Jasper told The Sun he doesn’t have a problem with dogs, but he doesn’t believe off-leash time is necessary for city-dwelling canines — something many experts would disagree with.

“I grew up in the suburbs and we raised boxers. We walked those dogs every single day on a leash. I don’t buy this notion that dogs are going to be depressed if they are not going to be let off leash.”

Jasper said the park board will be “going down the road of enshrining fenced-off areas for dogs and moving away from the current policy of staggered hours.”

What exactly this means — whether there will be an end to staggered hours in parks, forcing dog owners to travel farther to exercise their dogs, or whether those parks will be fenced off and made into full-time off-leash areas is yet to be decided.

By comparison, the City of Surrey is taking a leadership approach to dog-park planning: it has a new, 200-plus page 10-year master plan for off-leash development.

“The number of dogs is increasing dramatically in our cities. We decided we could solve some of our problems and it’s been working,” said Owen Croy, Surrey’s manger of parks.

Surrey studied international models, held town hall meetings and has a goal of providing walk-to dog parks for everyone in each of its six town centres.

Innovative, environmentally sound approaches to waste management, design, citizen stewardship, parking and lighting are all part of the plan.

Croy said the city’s efforts over the last 10 years helped resolve conflicts and satisfy all sides of the debate, and much more is in the works.

City of West Vancouver manager Andrew Banks said his district has 14 off-leash areas shared among approximately 3,100 local dogs, plus visitors, that make West Van’s beaches and walking trails a doggie destination of choice. Keeping everyone happy is a “balancing act,” said Banks, and the district is also looking at going toward more fenced-in off-leash areas.

The battle for space in Vancouver parks may be a by-product of increasing densification: parks have to serve a higher population. As the model of single-family homes becomes a thing of the past, public parks serve ever-increasing needs: they are the public’s backyard. Families celebrate birthdays, trainers work out with clients, children gather.

“As density rises, the size of parks remains the same and the problems increase,” said Vancouver Coun. Meggs.

Dog owner Suzanne Foreman said she is hoping for more tolerance from the city around use of alternative green spaces — like schoolyards after hours — until the city can work out a solution.

She knows her big, bouncy Briard, Georgia, could easily intimidate children, and she keeps her on a tight leash while walking on neighbourhood streets.

But Georgia is a working breed: she needs two hours a day of hard running, play and socialization to be happy and healthy.

Foreman often takes Georgia to a field adjacent to her local elementary school that is popular with dog owners after school hours.

The school principal doesn’t mind, and there is a big sign on the chain-link fence saying dogs are welcome as long as dog owners clean up after them.

But animal control disagrees. Foreman received a “stern $500 warning” for throwing a ball to Georgia in the empty schoolyard at dusk, and said the climate of fear and conflict in the dog wars is exacerbated by the enforcement tactics.

“They come in, four or five of them, swoop down from different directions and converge. It’s crazy — it’s like a SWAT team.”

The incident left her shaken, she said in an email to Mayor Gregor Robertson. (He did not reply.)

To access designated off-leash space in her neighbourhood, Foreman has to walk nearly an hour each way, or drive.

Foreman said one dog owner who uses the local school’s field is in a wheelchair and has nowhere else to go.

Shannon Malmberg, a professional Vancouver dog trainer with Zen dog training, said she has concerns about what kind of dog park development the city might undertake. Dog parks where people just dump their pets after long days cooped up aren’t ideal. She prefers a model that encourages shared activities with dogs.

“I’m a fan of off-leash dog walking trails where people are moving with their dogs rather than just standing. As a dog trainer, I get to see a lot of behavioural issues that come from incidents where dogs have been bullied or picked on or psychologically damaged by incidences at the park.”

Separation of spaces for large and small dogs, agility areas and places where owners can work with their dogs are important, said Malmberg.

The park board has earmarked $270,000 in its capital plan for dog park improvements and development, Jasper, the board’s chairman, said. “Priorities would be for some of Vancouver’s dense neighbourhoods, any neighbourhoods in the downtown core.”

Jasper said he hopes for “a good discussion, a good debate on a proposed new policy.” The park board is re ing emails, but Jasper said public meetings aren’t part of the plan.

“I’ve asked our staff if there are some really innovative web-based platforms for online town-hall formats,” he said.

Stakeholders on both sides of the issue in Vancouver have concerns about being heard.

In an email to The Sun, off-leash opponent Anne Pepper asked: “Are we doing what is best for the city as a whole or are we simply responding to who yells the loudest?”

Dog owner Alan Jones isn’t convinced anyone in Vancouver is listening — at least not to those advocating on behalf of dogs, who, of course, can’t speak for themselves. In the meantime, he’s driving a lot more in order to walk Maurie and Kiera. “That’s not part of being a green city to me,” he said.

And Foreman said she’s tired of feeling vilified. “I just want to be able to walk to an off-leash park with my dog within a reasonable distance. Is that too much to ask?”

dryan@vancouversun.com

Denise Ryan is a dog owner in Vancouver, however she has been on both sides of this issue. Before adopting her Labradoodle, Charlie, Ryan wasn’t keen on off-leash dogs, having been knocked over while jogging in Pacific Spirit Park on the city’s west side. She has received one stern warning for allowing Charlie off leash in an undesignated area, a transgression she hopes not to repeat. However, in incident inspired her to investigate the growing rift between dog owners and non-dog owners in Vancouver.

To read and respond to the park board Dog Off Leash Area review, go to vancouver.ca/parks/info/dogparks/index.htm

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By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

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